From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 56 minutes ago, updated 26 minutes ago
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After the escape of Adolfo Macias, the leader of the criminal gang Los Choneros, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency for 60 days.
Thin beard, thin mouth and dark eyes, that's what you can see on his wanted poster: Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, today the most wanted criminal in Ecuador after he escaped from prison from which he commanded one of the country's largest criminal gangs .
Authorities have not yet determined the amount that will be paid to those who provide information about the leader of Los Choneros, a drug trafficking gang that emerged in the coastal province of Manabi (southwest) in the 1990s and is strategically important for cocaine exports United States and Europe. The 44-year-old drug agent, who was also pictured with long shaggy hair and a distinctive beard during a recent prison transfer, had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder. But on Sunday he disappeared from the maximum security prison in Guayaquil (south) on the eve of a police operation about which he had apparently been informed in advance.
“Differentiated and preferential treatment by the authorities”
The public prosecutor's office opened an investigation against two prison officers “who were allegedly involved in the escape” of “Fito”, who had already escaped from a maximum security prison in 2013 but was recaptured after three months. Little is known about the current leader of Los Choneros, other than his humble past as a taxi driver and his ability to cause harassment, which led the Ecuadorian government to label him a “criminal with extremely dangerous characteristics.” In the area of the Guayaquil prison center, with murals to his fame and drawings of weapons, dollars and lions, he was also the leader.
Videos show him celebrating inside the prison with musicians and pyrotechnic devices. Behind the high walls, where the prison administration does not always lay down the laws, to his credit he even recorded a video clip of a “narcorroccido” (popular song in honor of drug traffickers): “El corrido del Leon”. He appears with a large hat on his head, greeting and laughing with four inmates in the prison yard and petting a fighting cock, to a tune sung notably by his daughter, known as Queen Michelle.
“Fito” exercised “significant internal control over the prison,” emphasized the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in a 2022 report. It highlighted that Adolfo Macias was killed, as well as Junior Roldan, another leader of Los Choneros Last year in Colombia, he benefited from “differentiated and preferential treatment by the authorities” in prison. Known to be very charismatic, “Fito” studied law behind bars until he qualified as a lawyer.
Rise and fragmentation
The name “Fito” has made headlines in recent months after one of the main candidates for the presidential election was assassinated in early August. Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist and parliamentarian who was killed by a Colombian hitman, reported receiving death threats from the leader of the Choneros shortly before his execution. In the world of “Fito” the saying goes: “The king is dead, long live the king.” His rise to the top of the gang, which according to experts consists of around 8,000 members, is due to the successive deaths of previous leaders. This was accompanied by the fragmentation of the gang, which until recently consisted of countless small, affiliated gangs.
According to the Insight Crime research center, recent leadership changes in Los Choneros “have led to power struggles within the group and its subgroups.” The Tiguerones and the Chone Killers split up and became powerful rivals. Insight Crime even claims that Los Choneros “gradually lost power to an alliance led by Los Lobos,” whose leader in Quito, Fabricio Colon Pico, also escaped from a prison in Chimborazo province on Tuesday (centre), where he had been transferred on charges of plotting to assassinate a prosecutor.
According to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory, the Choneros have established ties with powerful Colombian (Clan del Golfo) and Mexican (Sinaloa Cartel) criminal organizations and networks in the Balkans. But on social networks, the Choneros present themselves as benefactors, a kind of Robin Hood, with video clips in which they praise the drug trade. They threaten journalists online and issue warnings to other rival gangs to the rhythm of urban music. “Choneros, we are lions. “Since Uncle Fito controls the neighborhood, we are the bosses,” goes one of the many songs on their YouTube channel JF Music Entertainment.